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Society membership poll results

Posted 30 Sep 2009

Here are the results of our first Unlock the Past poll. 172 votes were cast by 116 people, a good number, given this was an early poll on a site that has just started. We did not make it clear that multiple boxes could be ticked, but will do so in future.

Are you a member of a genealogy or historical society?

Type #votes %voters

Yes, a local regional society 54 46.6%

Yes, my own state society 46 39.7%

Yes, a society outside my own state 34 29.3%

I am interested but haven’t got around to it 5 4.3%

No, I do my research on the internet 16 13.8%

No, I have discontinued a previous membership 13 11.2%

Other 4 3.4%

‘Other’ votes that people have entered in the poll.

The two in Queensland

Family tree maker

plus overseas society

N.Z.S.G.

Where the votes came from

Australia 165

New Zealand 4

Netherlands 2

Spain 1

The sample is very small at this stage. But of interest was the nearly 10% who said “No, I do my research on the internet” and others who said “I have discontinued a previous membership”. Clearly there is interest enough to have even seen the survey. No doubt time and distance from society libraries and meetings would be a factor in these figures, but society resources and services are very useful for most who want to research thoroughly.

We invite you to complete our current poll Do you use any online social media?. This will run over two weeks concluding Friday 9 October. I imagine the results of this question will change over time. We will likely run it again in 3 or 6 months. We will continue to run polls regularly. Please let us know of any ideas for poll questions.